How to avoid the Craigslist Job Scam

Craigslist Scams

Scams Continued......

Craigslist Job Scams:

I'm certain at one point or another most of you have had to look for
work. In the old days that meant a lot of shoe leather schlepping
around from one place to another begging for jobs. Now things have
become much easier and more dangerous. With the click of a mouse you
can send your information all over the web and apply to several
different job opportunities. Don't think this great advancement has
escaped the eyes of the scammer. The scammers have also taken
advantage of places like Craigslist to get your information. There
are a few different things to be careful with here. As I have
already explained in another post there is the Psycho potential
employer that will lure you to his home or office and chop you up
into little bite size pieces. If you think "Silence of the Lambs"
was a weird, twisted movie, I have news for you, there are people in
the real world that are like the bad guys in that movie.

Problem number two is dangerous in a different way. The second way
that the Craigslist job scam works is by getting your information or
your money. As with other scams there will be some jobs that will
sound very enticing and have great potential. The problem arises
when you have to get a background check or some other sort of
professional training or any other nonsense the scammer can create.
At this point they will inform you that if you wish to apply for a
job you will have to wire them some money to secure your position
and to defray the cost of said background check, etc. There goes
your money being wired to some foreign country again.

The other version of the Craigslist jobs scam is the information
gathering scam. This can happen in one of two ways. If you send out
your resume with all your personal information on it, then you just
made it really easy for them. Now they can take your info and steal
your identity. Thank you, that was easy!

If you are smart and have taken my advice and keep all your personal
information very close to the vest, then they will have to work on
you a little harder. The next method is to tell you that to be able
to apply for a position with their company you have to apply through
a professional staffing firm such as greatcareersearch.com or
perfectfitcareers.com. Check out these two site if you are
curious, You will find that they are both the SAME site. Now do you
see how easy it is to create bogus sites and emails? Once you
register with sites such as these you will be asked a variety of
questions and slowly you will start giving out your personal
details. The more they get from you, the more they can steal your
identity. The biggest crime in the world right now is Identity
Theft!

You can avoid getting caught up in the web of scammers if you simply
use your brain, and follow some common sense. OK, I'll help you out.

I'll play Letterman and give you the "Top Twenty methods to spot
a Craigslist job scam". Drum roll please!!!

1. It has a generic, overused or vague job title.
"Administrative Assistant" or "Customer Service Rep".
(I'm sure you can think of some others)

2. The job indicates that "Telecommuting is OK".
(I can work from home? WOW, this is the
perfect job for me!)

3. They don't list a specific location for the job - i.e., No
location under the city or area that you are searching.
(Well, it must be a job in the Ethernet right?
NOT!)

4. They list a salary or hourly wage that seems too good to
be true or too specific like "$12.95 - $38.45 / hour."
(Wow, a high paying, nondescript job, this
sounds like a government job!)

5. They list it as a government job.
(HAHAHAHA,
See above)

6. They post a job with a title that doesn't match the
description. (They aren't very smart, and they
hope you aren't either.)

7. They use strange sentences or misspellings.
(that's exactly what you want, a boss that
can't spell)

8. A search for that job title in Yahoo - example "Admin
Assistant Craig's List" comes up in many other cities with the exact
same job post. Since Craigslist is free, they can easily post the
same job in every city. (Maybe it's a big
company with lots of openings? Get real.)

10. If the description boldly states
"No Experience
Necessary" but has a promise of high pay....
(Again, sounds like a government job. Great
salary, great pension, job security, no experience needed.)

11. There is no job contact information. Any normal job will
have some sort of contact information. (Maybe
they have telepathy and will contact you mentally)

12. A link that is to a home business or multi level
marketing opportunity website. (Hey, come join
my pyramid scheme.)

13. A link that redirects you to another site.
(what's the matter, the first site, wasn't
good enough?)

14. A link that takes you to a job membership site and asks
you to register. (Already discussed this.
That's a No No!)

15. A quick response to your email inquiry that tells you
they have reviewed your resume, that you never sent.
(Man, that is some powerful telepathy they
got.)

16. A quick response to your email inquiry that leads you to
another website that promises you more job openings click after
click. (The more clicks the merrier, for them,
since they are probably making money off each click.)

17. A response to your email inquiry that asks you to sign up
for a web-conferencing service so you can be part of a training
call. (And I thought party lines went out in
the 50's)

18. A response to your email inquiry with a name and company
that does not exist. (Just like your paycheck)

19. A response to your email inquiry from someone in a
foreign country looking to hire people in the United States to
handle accounts payable or receivables. (A
money laundering scheme. But I hate the Laundromat!)

20. The same auto response to all of your emails, no matter
what you ask. (Automated responses, at least
they know how to use technology.)

I know I make fun, but I hope this helps!!!!!!!

Darn that exclamation mark got away from me again.

Follow these rules, do your homework and you can save yourself a lot
of time and trouble. If you really must respond to a job listing,
don't send your resume right away. Test out the waters. Send an
email and ask a few questions. Check back here if you don't remember
all these guidelines. Remember if they don't answer your questions
in the response email and they start dancing around the questions,
just walk away. You should be able to tell if a response is real or
just fishing for info from you. Read any responses carefully and
read between the lines. Break down the response and see if you can
find fault with it. For example, some scammers will use the details
from real companies. If they send you info from a real company I'm
sure you can figure out how to cross reference and see if that
person or position really exists. Search the web for details about
that company.

Here's Another Scam:

The Printing & Sending Checks Job Scam?
So I just got contacted by someone via text message cause I posted an ad earlier
that I'm looking for a job (I posted my cell #) on Craigslist. They asked if I
was still looking for a job. (Yes) then they asked if I had a computer &
printer. (Yes) Now this is where it gets a little odd. They told my that I would
be printing and sending checks to them & that I'd get paid bi-weekly a certain
amount of $$. They said that they would give me the software to print out the
checks, & that I have to create a yahoo IM & then to give them my yahoo ID to
chat. I don't know if I'm just supper skeptical or what but do you think I
should go through with this?

Reality Check! This is only a scammer trying to steal your hard-earned
money.

The next email will be from another of the scammer's fake names and free email
addresses pretending to be the "secretary/assistant/accountant" and will demand
you spend your own money to purchase a new printer, ink and blank check paper.
You then print fake checks and use a stolen UPS/FedEx billing account number to
send the fake checks to victims who think they have a work-at-home job cashing
checks sending most of the "money" via Western Union or moneygram back to the
scammer posing as the "supply company". Any check you receive to buy the
supplies or as a paycheck will also be fake.

Western Union and moneygram do not verify anything on the form the sender fills
out, not the name, not the street address, not the country, not even the gender
of the receiver, it all means absolutely nothing. The clerk will not bother to
check ID and will simply hand off your cash to whomever walks in the door with
the MTCN# and question/answer. Neither company will tell the sender who picked
up the cash, at what store location or even in what country your money walked
out the door. Neither company has any kind of refund policy, money sent is money
gone forever.

When you refuse to print his fake checks and send him your cash he will send
increasingly nasty and rude emails trying to convince you to go through with his
scam. The scammer could also create another fake name and email address like
"FBI@ gmail.com", "police_person @hotmail.com" or "investigator @yahoo.com" and
send emails telling you the job is legit and you must cash the fake check and
send your money to the scammer or you will face legal action. Just ignore,
delete and block those email addresses. Although, reading a scammer's attempt at
impersonating a law enforcement official can be extremely funny.

Now that you have responded to a scammer, you are on his 'potential sucker'
list, he will try again to separate you from your cash. He will send you more
emails from his other free email addresses using another of his fake names with
all kinds of stories of great jobs, lottery winnings, millions in the bank and
desperate, lonely, sexy singles. He will sell your email address to all his
scamming buddies who will also send you dozens of fake emails all with the exact
same goal, you sending them your cash via Western Union or moneygram.

You could post up the email address that the scammer is using, it will help make
your post more googlable for other suspicious potential victims to find when
looking for information.

Do you know how to check the header of a received email? If not, you could
google for information. Being able to read the header to determine the
geographic location an email originated from will help you weed out the most
obvious scams and scammers. Then delete and block that scammer. Don't bother to
tell him that you know he is a scammer, it isn't worth your effort. He has one
job in life, convincing victims to send him their hard-earned cash.

Whenever suspicious or just plain curious, google everything, website addresses,
names used, companies mentioned, phone numbers given, all email addresses, even
sentences from the emails as you might be unpleasantly surprised at what you
find already posted online. You can also post/ask here and every scam-warner-anti-fraud-busting
site you can find before taking a chance and losing money to a scammer.

"Rules to follow" to avoid most fake jobs:1) Job asks you to use your personal bank account and/or open a new one.2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity
verification site.

Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed 'red flags' and you will
miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No.
Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.